


The Haunted House

by that_weird_girl



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Boys Kissing, Childhood Trauma, First Kiss, Fluff, Halloween Prompts, Haunted House, M/M, Tumblr Prompt, i guess?, moodboard, pumpkin patch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-25 03:18:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21349378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/that_weird_girl/pseuds/that_weird_girl
Summary: Richie lets Eddie take him into a haunted house, even though he isn't very fond of them.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 2
Kudos: 35





	The Haunted House

* * *

*

It had happened years ago, but Richie could still remember that day like it was yesterday.

His Granny and Pop Pop took him to a carnival once around Halloween, and they let him go into the haunted house. He was six and Richie had been carrying a little paper bag of sour cherry balls with him when all of a sudden, this clown jumped out at him. It had crazy blue hair and a half happy half sad face in neon paint, and it grabbed him and made that horrible, obnoxious laughing noise. And Richie had screamed until the clown finally let him.

And he had sworn from then on that he would never, ever go back into one of those ever again.

Of course, Richie didn’t know then that one day, he would attend college and meet the cutest guy ever with brown doe eyes and twice the sass of his own height. And that they would go on a date to a pumpkin patch on a nice foggy, crisp fall day. And that this guy would reveal that he loves haunted houses because guess what?

Because he loves be scared.

"It looks real scary, doesn’t it?" Eddie asked Richie as they walked the gravel path together, pulling a wagon behind them with two pumpkins rolling around inside.

The haunted house was a long, low building with the windows either darkened or with silhouette cutouts inside, and a set of stairs leading up to the red door. They could smell the fog machine haze as it drifted out the doors every time they opened. And there was a scarecrow waiting at a little table for the newest victims to pay two dollars each to be scared out of their minds.

"Oh, yeah, it’s real scary. Because cheap and stupid is really, _really _scary," Richie replied in a heavy tone.

A scream suddenly erupted from inside the haunted library, loud enough to startle them to jump. Richie felt his heart race nervously, and then he saw that Eddie was looking at him with a smirk across his lips.

"Yeah, it’s really cheap and stupid, huh?" Eddie teased him back. "So you’re going to go in with me, right?"

"Wait, I thought you wanted ice cream. We got those sandwiches you wanted, and then you were full and said you wanted to walk around before we got ice cream. And we’ve been walking around..." Richie tried to distract Eddie by gesturing towards the little ice cream stand, where there were only two people at the window.

"I think I can wait another ten minutes for ice cream to go into a haunted house. Come on, scaredy cat, it will be my treat. I’ll even hold your hand, okay?"

Richie didn’t say anything. He was trying to think of a way to get out of this. Because Eddie really wanted to go in there, and Richie was not about to tell his cute date that he was terrified of going into a haunted house because he would get hugged by a blue haired clown.

Eddie watched Richie for a moment, waiting for him to say something. "Richie, are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah…yeah, I’m okay. If you really want to go, let’s go," Richie agreed and Eddie grinned up at him, pleased with having won.

They walked up to the house together, Richie’s heart beating harder with each step. They left the wagon along the front of the building and Eddie took out his wallet as they approached the scarecrow, who held out her gloved hand to them. "Two dollars each," the scarecrow growled.

Eddie put the money in their hand. "Come on," he smiled at Richie, then reached out for Richie’s hand and gave it a squeeze.

Richie’s heart was pounding in his chest and he took a deep breath to calm himself. He slowly followed Eddie up the stairs and into the house, trying to keep himself calm, calm, _just stay calm keep breathing it’s just costumes and decorations and a fog machine right that’s all it was back then just some asshole with fake hair and paint on their face —_

He had told himself that a million times since he was a kid, but it barely helped. So Richie just did the only thing he could do, and that was close his eyes and let Eddie lead him through the house.

Except that he ran into everything. Every door frame, every hanging skeleton, every chair or box or whatever that was part of the display. He heard the wind up sound of some kind of toy going off and gasped when his heart went _boom-boom-boom-boom_ in his chest. Sometimes Eddie would gasp too, or make a surprised sound, but then he would laugh afterwards. And Richie wished he felt brave enough to open his eyes and look too.

"Why do you keep running into things? Do you have your eyes closed back there? Are you scared?" Eddie asked, although Richie couldn’t see him. He sounded very surprised at the idea and when Richie didn’t answer right away, Eddie looked back at him. "**Wait, are you actually scared?"**

Richie made a scoffing sound, keeping his eyes closed as he shook his head. "Well, of course I’m not scared of the haunted house. These things aren’t even scary."

"Richie, why didn’t tell me you’re scared to come in here?"

"Because it’s stupid. It’s a stupid thing that happened when I was a kid. I’ve always been scared of haunted houses, but you love them and I…I didn’t want to ruin this date for you."

There was a pause from Eddie and for a moment, Richie thought that maybe Eddie was going to leave him in there. And then something touched his face and Richie pulled away nervously, eyes still closed.

"Would you hold still, I’m trying to kiss you!" Eddie told him.

"Sorry, I thought you were…I don’t know, something scary in here," Richie said.

But he managed to stay still long enough for Eddie to put his hands on Richie’s shoulders and lean up to kiss him, softly on the lips. When Eddie leaned away, Richie did open his eyes and that was a mistake, because there was a neon red light right by them.

"Ow!" he complained, bringing his hand up to block his eyes. "Why is it so bright in here?"

"Do you know how dramatic you are? And the date wouldn’t have been ruined if you didn’t want to come in here," Eddie told him. He was looking fondly at Richie though, a little smirk on his face. "I would have offered some kind of incentive to get you here, even though this one is really not that scary."

"I’m interested to know what the incentive would be," Richie said, still squinting into the red lighting.

"What if I offered to scoop all the guts out of the pumpkins myself so you don’t have to?"

Richie sighed with relief. He hated that part of pumpkin carving. "I knew there was something I liked about your soft little hands."

The smirk on Eddie’s face stretched even further. "Oh, you have _no_ idea how much you will like them."

*


End file.
